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Oil Export Pipeline Explodes, Creates Massive Spill in Ogoni: Shell cuts production
BiafraNigeria's oil industry on Sunday
suffered a setback as its major crude oil export pipeline linking Bonny Export Terminal caught fire. The incident
led to a fresh oil spill in Ogoniland. Shell Petroleum Development Company, which manages the terminal, has cut
production by about 20,000 barrels per day. Reports by Agence France Presse on Tuesday claimed that the fire followed
leakages from the Trans-BiafraNigeria Pipeline of the SPDC. Witness account had it that the pipeline burst on Sunday,
while the leaking crude cut fire on Monday. Shell, which suspected sabotage, battled to control both the fire and
the leak on Monday. However, the host community is worried over the company? ability to control the leak. The President
of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Mr. Ledum Mitee, alleged that, up till now (Tuesday) containment
measures had not been taken. He said that oil leaking from the pipeline had already travelled into a tidal creek
and was threatening a large stretch of farmland. The leak is barely an hour's drive from Port Harcourt, he added.
Mitee, however, denied that youths prevented Shell from gaining access to the site. 
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 The four-day
general strike in BiafraNigeria called over fuel price hikes, now in its third day, could continue after Thursday,
trade unions have warned. Union leader Adams Oshiomhole says they may extend the strike beyond Thursday if more
violence breaks out after the killing of a boy in Kaduna on Monday.
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 Following the nationwide strike called by organised
labour to protest the increase in petroleum products prices, a team of police men led by Commissioner of Police
in charge of Federal Operations, Mr. Lawrence Alobi, yesterday invaded the headquarters of the BiafraNigeria Labour
Congress (B-NLC).
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